X4
by Newbornson
Summary: Eight months after Alcatraz and people are finding that nothing is what it seems. [How I need a better summary... sighs]
1. Prologue

Prologue

_Eight months after Alcatraz Island_

_October 27th _

Erik solemnly stared at the barely filled out application, not thinking anything in particular. Except that he hated that mutant cure with a passion.

His normally clear blue eyes darkened at the thought. He had to stop himself from tearing the piece of paper in shreds.

The wind blew through his silver hair and the sun highlighted his blue eyes. He cringed and looked up at the sun in the clear sky before looking back down at the piece of paper.

Why, he asked himself, was he filling out an application for a job as a cook at a small reclusive family owned diner?

He couldn't spend the rest of his days dreaming his life the way he wished it to be, that's why. He had to swallow his pride and fill out this application. His funds were no longer any good to him; the governments of the world united and seized his bank accounts.

He snorted at the thought. Greedy people always did band together, he thought before he continued with the application. And he already lost his previous two jobs because they recognized him.

He looked up suddenly as a voice caressed the back of his mind. He couldn't distinguish it from a child's voice or a woman's voice, but it was soft, very soft. Like lovers' caress. He couldn't make out what it was saying, but he knew that it didn't belong there in his head.

Erik turned around, placing his left arm over the benches' backrest to look better over his shoulder. All he saw were children playing in the distance, their mothers' talking to one another or reading their frivolous paperback romances, anything else than watching their children.

That train of thought caused his eyes to darken once again. The mothers' were careless; did they not understand how precious a child was? How precious their family was? That it was a crime against their own flesh and blood not to enjoy their presence as much as they could?

The bells from a nearby church rang out the time. It was noon.

The earth started to shake and the mothers and their children looked all around in fright. Even Erik looked around as if in search for the source. But as he did so, it had gone as quickly as it arrived. The spooked families whispered and some ushered their children and packed their things to head back home.

He didn't though; he didn't have his own family to worry about anymore. His eyes saddened at the thought, but he quickly banished it to the back of his mind as he turned back around and continued filling out his application, making sure to avoid the previous employer lines.

**x**

Mystique, other wise known as Raven, mostly known as Raven, stretched her pale limbs towards the top shelf of a bookshelf in her second job at a used bookstore. She pulled down the book that a girl around the height of five foot had asked for, T.H. White's "The Once and Future King".

She brushed her black hair that was now some ways past her shoulders. With a beautiful smile, she handed the girl the book and received a kind smile in return. "Thanks." The small girl said.

"Anything else today?" Raven asked as she led the small girl up to the register.

"Nah, this is it," the girl said as she stopped by her Asian friend clad in yellow. Said friend popped a huge pink bubble and merrily continued chomping on her bubble gum. Raven couldn't help but think the yellow kid looked familiar. She also didn't like her. She dressed loud and was even louder, something that Raven didn't like at all.

"Five ninety-six." Raven said quietly as she rung up the worn book with the red cover. She fingered it with a thoughtful look on her face as she waited for the girl before her to fish out the money.

She remembered seeing Erik reading this before, a long time ago. Her eyes darkened at the thought of the man she had loved. That she still loved.

But she was going to get her revenge soon. She hid a sadistic smirk as she glanced at the inch and a half silver bangle on her right wrist.

She had forged new bonds now. New bonds that promised her everything that she wanted… and more.

With a diabolical gleam in her eyes, she lifted her head and held out her hand as the girl finally got out the exact amount of money that she asked for.

"Why're you even getting that book for Kitty?" The Loud one asked as she nonchalantly picked up a book and flipped through it, her spiky black and yellow streaked hair and overly large hoop earrings and constantly popping bubblegum driving Raven mad. Not to mention all the yellow. Yellow leather jacket, yellow halter top… yellow crocodile boots. It all made Raven want to just… BLAH!

"The said it was the Professors' favorite book." the girl named Kitty said in a quiet voice as she took her proffered book from Ravens' grasp.

Ravens' eyes flashed at the girls' response, her grip on the book tightening only a little before she let the small girl take it.

"Oh… sorry Kitty." the Loud one said in a truly sympathetic voice as she placed the book she was looking at on the wrong shelf.

Ravens' eye twitched.

The next thing she knew the girls were walking out of the used bookstore, Raven watching them the entire time.

"X-Geeks." she said quietly. Her gaze still lingered on the glass door that they passed through. Stayed there even when a tremor echoed through the store, though she didn't seem to notice. Her gaze was only taken away when a little old lady around the age of ninety came up and asked for the time.

Raven glanced at her plain black strapped wristwatch.

"Noon."

**x**

Rogue knew the awful truth. Had only the slightest inkling about what it would bring. But an inkling nonetheless. Rivers of salt filled tears cascaded down her ivory face. She gazed at her bare hands, palms up, despair on her face as she laced her fingers slowly together.

"Ah can't believe you were right." she whispered, her tone echoing with such dejected finality that it nearly made Magneto wince.

Nearly.

Her eyes lifted to that he was sitting across from her in a plush chair, a smug smirk on his face. He gestured with his hands 'what can I say' before feigning mock pity, his lower lip slightly protruding. A sound snapped her attention away from him and to the door, where someone had just knocked.

Magneto's eyebrows rose as she passed him without a single glance. She opened the door just a crack, peering through to a blinding light. She squinted.

"Hey." said a strong voice.

Rogue blinked against the light a few times before her eyes focused on the figure standing at her door and blocking most of the harsh sunlight streaming from the corridor's large window. The figure was tall.

"Hey Pete." Rogue rasped, her throat raw and dry, her face red.

"Are you okay." he asked, concern lacing his tone.

Rogue nodded slowly, trying to keep some of her hair in her face without looking as if she was purposefully trying to hide her face in the first place.

"Yeah."

Pete drew in a deep breath and slowly released it out. He looked as if he didn't believe her. But he nodded his head in acceptance for her want of privacy.

"It's eleven fifty." he spoke softly, knowing she had been suffering severe migraines for quite a while now. He was one of the few who did know, one of the few who knew anything about her personal life anymore.

Rogue nodded. "I'll meet ya down there." she rasped and quietly closed her door, submerging herself back into the almost pitch black of her room.

She paused, her forehead to the cool door, her hand still on the brass knob and sighed. She heard chuckling from her left and barely turned her head towards the sound to find Magneto still sitting there, smirking at her.

"It's pointless, you know." he said.

Rogue gulped.

He heaved a sigh and looked around her room, "So sad, really." he looked back at her with a mocking frown marring his face, "You, not the situation to which you find yourself in."

"I find you completely and utterly uninspiring. A bit plain. And certainly very traditional in the face of danger." He looked straight ahead and murmured, "I can see why you took the cure."

Rogues' jaw clenched.

"Only way to keep a fellow." He smiled at her and winked.

"GET OUT!" she yelled, tears streaming down her face, her body shaking.

He placed a hand on his chest, "The truth cannot offend, my dear."

Rogue started to shake with barely controlled rage.

"Get. Out. Now. Or I'll..."

He looked at her through curious narrowed eyes at her pause.

"Or what."

She looked away, her lips firmly pressed together as she briefly ponder on the thought, and looked back up at him, the answer evident in her eyes but not evident to her. "I don't know." she whispered.

Magneto nodded his head and looked to the ground. He placed his fedora back on his head and tipped it in her direction before disappearing.

Rogue rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, ignoring the scalding hot flesh her hands touched. She was starting to get a migraine. She couldn't help but think bitter thoughts on how that would affect her training and how Storm will grill her about her lack of decent performance.

Rogue looked at the digital and blissfully silent digital clock in the far corner of the room, far away from her bed.

It read twelve in the afternoon, and she was late for training. Again.


	2. Chapter One

_The human body is a miraculous contraption. Over the hundreds of years of evolution, the body has adapted itself to survive the harshest anger of nature and to thrive when it is compliant. For all their time, the human race has evolved to what it is today, still thriving up in the evolutionary ladder. _

_Like all the other times when all seems well and nothing will bar our way upward, something manifest itself. Sometimes, with the help of nature, and sometimes, with the help of Man. It is, essentially, our right of passage, our right to keep living on this green Earth. Most will die, and yet others will live. _

_And that which does not kill us, makes us stronger. _

**xXx**

_Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up._

**xXx**

"...breaking the record high set in nineteen-seventy-five..."

_Click_

"...the whole state of New York continues to stay in the mid eighties for the week..."

_Click_

"...storm front coming in, should bring the rain I promised..."

_Click_

"Jubes!"

Jubilee stopped her cruising of the television and looked to her left at a frazzled Kitty. Jubilee wordlessly handed her the remote, for Kitty hardly raised her voice.

Kitty sighed and pushed her bangs out of her face before accepting the remote and turning it back to the weather station.

"The average temp will continue to be in the mid eighties for North Salem. A bit of precipitation is headed our way; hopefully that will cool things down a bit for us as the heat wave continues." The weatherman concluded, looking a bit shifty and uncertain.

"He promised us rain two weeks ago." Jubilee scoffed as she laid her head back and sighed, "Thank God we don't have training today."

Kitty nodded as she watched the weekly forecast replace the weatherman.

"That's what you two think." Logan said as he leaned against the doorway of the rec room. Both girls turned their attention to him.

"It's Sunday." Kitty said.

"Yeah, we always have Sundays off." Stated Jubilee.

"If you have a problem, talk to Storm." Logan said as he walked away.

Kitty looked at the screen before getting up off the couch. "I hope it's not outside." Jubilee said as she followed her friend.

**x**

Record highs were being broken left and right. It seemed the Earth was changing its' mind on which side of the hemisphere would be having a warm Christmas. Except, North America was the only continent that seemed to be suffering, for the capitals of Europe and most of Asia (excluding, of course, such countries as Taiwan and the like) were sitting anywhere in the mid thirties to the mid forties. Even Wellington, New Zealand, which happened to be around fifty-five, was much cooler than it was in North Salem.

It had been unusual weather for the last four months. The whole of New York had not seen a drop of rain since June. August hitting nearly into the triple digits while September rested in the mid eighties. October saw a drop in the temperature, the month being ruled by mid seventies, with the occasional day jumping into the early eighties. The last week cooled off to the high sixties. It would seem, at last, that the heat wave was passing.

Then the first week of November came. The first found itself at a docile temperature, leading everyone to think that the heat wave was passing by. But the second surprised everyone when the temperature reached a record ninety-nine in the span of a second. Literally. The sudden abrupt shift sent hundreds to the hospital. Thirty people had died that day just from the shock of such a dramatic shift. Of course, nowadays, when such a phenomenon occurs, vicious whispers rampage. However, the news placed the burden upon its' shoulders to play down the incident, citing a freak weather anomaly. It has been known to happen, they say. Which is true, he has seen it before in his long lifetime. But it is not likely. He didn't care though; it wasn't in his interest about the goings on of the mutant people. Not anymore.

Erik wiped a towel over his forehead as he sat on break outside. Eighty-five degrees outside and it was November the seventh. North Salem (and most of the United States) was suppose to be in tune with Europe, sinking into the lower forties instead of rising into the eighties the closer the New Year arrived. Today beat the record high in nineteen-seventy-five by thirteen degrees.

He wiped his face again as he let his head relax on the brick building of the family owned restaurant. It was his fifth day there. His bones were weary, his skin felt as if it were carrying lead in every pore and his eyes felt as if some invisible force was trying to slowly gauge them out. His feet were developing sores from having to help Sarah in her waitress duties the other day when Dolores had called in sick and Millie was off at a funeral. His back was stiff from that exercise.

Erik turned his head to the left and heard and felt his joints crack, a pain-filled reprieve from the pain of having his head bent while scrubbing dishes all day. He rubbed his hands; they were exceedingly dry, to the point where the skin would crack open any day now. His knees had been screaming for him to sit, he had been standing for so long. He didn't even care about his posture anymore; he just wanted to sag in his hard seat like a potato sack.

He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. The days when he could easily bend metal to his will were over, that he could move about as easily as a man in his prime, despite the fact that shortly after the cure was so _graciously _administered to him that he could still feel the echo of the metal. But it was no more. It had gone like the brief breeze he had been hoping to catch today to ease the sweat and heat from his body that the kitchen enforced upon him.

He hated that cure.

The door on his right busted open and out came the stumbling Sarah, in all of her infamous klutzy glory. Erik slowly raised his head to pin her with a tired stare.

She scratched the back of her head, an insecure cheesy grin on her face.

Bad news was abounding.

"Jose just..." she paused and made a gesture with her hand that indicated vomiting, "blughed, all over the kitchen."

A look of sympathy crossed her face as she said, "You need to cover for him."

Erik sighed as he slowly stood up, his joints cracking in places that he didn't know they could. He winced.

"I cleaned it up fer ya." Sarah said, a hint of a southern lilt in her voice as she held the door open for the mutant formally known as the Master of Magnetism.

"'M sorry." Sarah said after him as she bit her lip and followed him inside.

**x**

"You know Charles was limiting you."

A glower and a growl. Rogue narrowed her eyes at him. "Ah don't wanna hear it." She snapped.

Magnetos' face filled with hopeless, yet amused, exasperation as he leaned back to sit up straight. Barely containing the urge to roll his eyes as he sat next to her on the stone bench.

A lighter clicked open, and closed, occasionally being lighted before closing again. They all stared at the mansion in the distance.

"Could've been the most powerful mutant on the planet."

John snorted.

A sharp intake of breath could be heard before Rogue swiftly stood up and marched away. Magneto and John grinned.

"Ah hate those two." She mumbled as she nearly stumbled in her huffed rush to get away from them. She tried to ignore the laughter of John, ducking her flaming face from the burning sun.

"Hey kid." Came a strong voice.

Rogue only growled as she passed him.

Logan looked confused for a moment before following her, his strides much more smooth as he caught up with her.

"Hey." He grabbed her shoulder, causing her to turn violently around. Shock, bewilderment and realization dawned on her face as she stuttered, "Ah... Ah'm sorry Logan. Ah thought..." she looked behind him at the smug looking characters, taking a moment to pass them a loathing look.

Logan looked behind him, not seeing anything.

Rogue took a deep breath; "It's nothin' Logan. Ya wanted somethin'?" Rogue asked as she shoved her bare hands in her jean pockets, her head slightly tilted to the side.

Logan stared at her for a moment, his expression slightly dazed. He shook his head as if to shake it free and cleared his throat.

"About the other day." He said softly, looking almost as if he were a schoolboy asking a girl out.

Rogue pressed her lips together, her posture instantly stiffening.

"It's okay Logan. Besides, she was right. Ah have nothin' to offer to the team." Rogue said as her face screwed up in insecurity, looking away into oblivion, her southern accent heavily affecting her words.

"No, it's not." Logan said gruffly as his own back straightened.

Rogue looked back up at him before shifting her gaze once more. John and Magneto were gone. That always happened when Logan was around.

She took in a deep calming breath, her soul instantly soothing. She gave Logan a half-hearted smile, tucking a white lock behind her right ear. She shyly looked down at the ground.

Silence passed between, in which Logan kept gazing at Rogue with a look of curiosity.

It was broken as they both tried to say something at the same time. They looked at one another, Rogue with her face wrapped in insecurity, Logan with his gaze.

"Ah- Ah better be goin'. Papers to grade n all." Rogue said as she nodded her head, her lips pursing together. Her eyes shifted rapidly. She turned around and began to walk back to the mansion when Logans' voice stopped her.

She looked over her left shoulder.

"I'm gonna talk to Storm." He said in a matter of fact tone, his expression mixed with seriousness and something else Rogue couldn't identify.

She gave him a sad smile and a nod of the head before walking off.

Logan sighed and ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he did so. He looked back at the stone bench, his eyes looking for any trace of something that might've caught her attention.

He found none.

A look of unease seemed to settle on his face for the briefest moment before he cast it aside and walked back to the garage. He had a class to teach.


End file.
